Gearing up for its anniversary this year, the German central bank announced in 2016 that it will not only rejuvenate its 1960s headquarters but may add another tower to complement its existing 13-story, 216-meter-long cement block building.

While Germans celebrated the bank’s diamond anniversary with cheap beer, lectures on banking supervision and fortune cookies on the wisdom of low inflation, not everyone is happy about so much focus on a national icon they think should be preparing to fade into the background as the European Central Bank steers the eurozone.

One of them will have to disappear eventually, former Italian Prime Minister and veteran European Commissioner Mario Monti suggested. “I wish the Bundesbank that it no longer exists in 60 years. I say this with the greatest admiration for her. By then we either have a real central bank for the currency area or we will have the Bundesbank and the other national central banks with all their functions,” he told Germany’s Handelsblatt in birthday wishes to the Bundesbank last week.

The current 13-story, 216-meter-long headquarters of Bundesbank | Mauritz Antin/EPA

But for now, the city of Frankfurt, seeking to win over banks fleeing a Brexit-clouded London, markets itself as the only city in the world with two central banks.

So their underground competition continues.

Rumors the Bundesbank is mulling a new skyscraper sparked media commentary about its rivalry with the European Central Bank, which moved into its brand new 43- and 45-story twin towers in Frankfurt’s Ostend in 2014. It also has other buildings in the city, including the 36-floor Eurotower.

“As if having to prove their loyalty, Germans here often seem to particularly vociferous in their Bundesbank criticism” — ECB employee

If it’s a case of “my tower is bigger than yours,” neither the Bundesbank nor the ECB will, officially,have any of it.

“Our relationship is very collegial and team-oriented,” a Bundesbank spokesperson said. An ECB spokesman affirmed that it has “a good and friendly working relationship with all our colleagues” in the national central banks across the eurozone.

And yet, this picture of rivalry rings all too true for people familiar with both Frankfurt institutions.

The Bundesbank, which prides itself on helping engineer Germany’s post-war economic miracle, has criticized the ECB’s unconventional crisis measures time and again, warning it against deviating from a relentless focus on that German bugbear, inflation. The ECB’s large-scale asset purchases, in particular, are seen stretching its mandate while removing important incentives for governments to get their finances in order.

Across town at the ECB, saving the eurozone was the top priority and policymakers have little time or understanding for the Bundesbank failing to support or even publicly criticizing the policies signed off by decision-makers from across the currency union.

ECB annoyance sometimes morphs into paranoia, with ECB employees speculating about the next Bundesbank intervention, putting German nationals working at the European bank in a particularly sensitive spot. “As if having to prove their loyalty, Germans here often seem to particularly vociferous in their Bundesbank criticism,” one ECB employee said.

So the building of new Bundesbank offices can quickly be loaded with perceived symbolism even if it is not clear whether the bank will seek building permission for a fancy skyscraper or an unassuming office block to house part of the 4,700 staff now spread out across different sites in the city. “We are still considering all options and the outcome is entirely open,” a Bundesbank spokesperson said.

If a flashy skyscraper could be viewed as an attempt at rivalry, a modest office block will be interpreted as implicit criticism of the ECB | Daniel Roland/AFP via Getty Images

While the city’s current high-rise development plan does not foresee skyscrapers in that area, special permission granted to the ECB to erect towers outside the high-rise area shows that this will not necessarily stand in the way.

Nor does it really matter.

If a flashy skyscraper could be viewed as an attempt at rivalry, a modest office block will be interpreted as implicit criticism of the ECB, contrasting the Bundesbank’s stability-oriented prudence against the ECB’s lofty ideas.

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Capt Europe

Your money and gold is safe in the EU! We have a long history of taking good care of it.

Posted on 8/11/17 | 2:25 PM CEST

wow

@CaptEurope The ECB currently have negative interest rates (-0.4%). If you don’t know what that means, it means rather than receive a payment percentage on savings, you have to pay a percentage for them to just keep your money in the bank, as it’s value is declining.

Cheerio now.

Posted on 8/11/17 | 5:10 PM CEST

FWI

Why is the Bundesbank adding office floor space? It should reduce.

I agree with Mario Monti: all kudos for the BB, but please get out of the way now and don’t end your days as a monetary policy taliban.

Posted on 8/12/17 | 9:28 AM CEST

Giuseppe Marrosu

@wow
I thought it meant that the Euro is solid and the eurozone is globally sound. Silly me.

Posted on 8/12/17 | 6:53 PM CEST

wow

@guiseppe

OH Sure! Ok then haha!!!! Hilarious! Thanks for that one.

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Posted on 8/13/17 | 7:34 AM CEST

wow

@giuseppe

What’s worrying is also how little you know about what is in stoe for the EU/EZ when QE and negative interest rates have to STOP.